WHEN TRUMP MET PUTIN
Both presidents give glimpses of warm relationship but have no formal, ‘substantive ’ talks
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met briefly on the sidelines of a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Vietnam on Saturday and agreed on the need for a political solution to Syria’s conflict. A joint statement on Syria followed their first meeting since July at a time that US-Russia relations have been battered.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he believed President Vladimir Putin was sincere in his repeated denials of interference in the 2016 presidential elections, calling the investigations into Moscow’s meddling a politically motivated “hit job” that is hindering cooperation with Russia on life-or-death issues.
Trump declined to say whether he believed Putin, but made it clear he’s not interested in dwelling on the issue.
Speaking after meeting privately with Putin on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit meeting in Danang, Vietnam, Trump said he had again asked whether Russia had meddled in the contest, but the continued focus on the issue was insulting to Putin.
“He said he didn’t meddle — I asked him again,” Trump told reporters travelling with him aboard Air Force One. “You can only ask so many times. I just asked him again. He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.
“Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it. He says, ‘I didn’t do that.’ I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.”
Trump did not answer a direct question about whether he believed Putin’s denials, which contradict the assessment of US intelligence agencies that the Russian president had directed an elaborate effort to interfere in the vote.
He suggested it was time to move past the issue so that the United States and Russia could cooperate on confronting the nuclear threat from North Korea, solving the Syrian civil war, and working together on Ukraine.
Trump and Putin didn’t have a formal meeting while they were in Vietnam, but the two spoke informally several times on the event’s sidelines and reached an agreement on a number of principles for the future of war-torn Syria.
The exchanges produced a rare common ground on the war in Syria, a bloody six-year conflict which has seen the US and Russia back competing factions.
The small group of reporters who travel with Trump were barred from covering his activities for most of Saturday, leaving them in the dark about the two presidents’ interactions.
The Kremlin later released a statement saying that the leaders had met and struck an agreement on Syria. Trump then told reporters that he had had two or three brief conversations with Putin, mostly about Syria.